ANAHEIM, Karen Tinlin: When will the United States cease legislating morality [“A war on prostitution,” Front Page, Jan. 20]? Where there is demand, there will always be supply. Reading again about the resources of time and money wasted trying to eliminate prostitution in Santa Ana is so frustrating.

We know how well eliminating alcohol by legislation worked. We know what a failure the “war on drugs” has been. We cannot legislate that demand so it is only logical that we regulate the supply, as is done for prostitution in many civilized countries.

Prohibition was repealed, and alcohol was regulated. Society would benefit if we focused our resources on programs to support people who no longer want to make those choices in their life rather than wasting them on seeking to eradicate a supply that will never be gone.

Vice President Joe Biden, accompanied by Attorney General Eric Holder, gestures as he speaks during a meeting with Sportsmen and Women and Wildlife Interest Groups and member of his cabinet, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Biden is holding a series of meetings this week as part of the effort he is leading to develop policy proposals in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

ORANGE, John R. Gangel, president, Little John's Antique Arms Inc.: “The party line” by liberal journalists on gun control is an embarrassment to reporters who actually research “facts.” Here are the facts:

First, gun laws don't work because criminals don't obey the law. In Mexico, guns are illegal without a permit, which is almost impossible to get. Drug dealers are better-armed and equipped than the police. We recently evidenced a young Marine's incarceration for possession of an antique .410 shotgun. Possession of any weapon in Mexico in a military caliber is cause for summary execution by the federal police or life imprisonment. More than 300 million firearms are in the U.S., and no law, including complete confiscation, will work. Criminals will obtain firearms as they always have, either on the black market or stealing them. Guns have been stolen from military bases, police, National Guard armories and can be smuggled illegally into the United States from other countries. Murder is a wholesale commodity in Mexico, where gun laws are restrictive to the point of a national prohibition. We already experimented with a national prohibition on alcohol, which gave rise to the “Roaring Twenties,” creating a huge black market and crime spree.

Second, safety laws do work. Anyone who buys a gun should have to prove he or she has a gun lock, a gun safe and can pass a safety test. California already has these laws; they work. I administer tests, and I deal with these regulations on a daily basis as a 40-year-plus licensed gun dealer. It's the most sensible, realistic and workable solution. The Sandy Hook shooter could only have been stopped by a gun safe or trigger lock (I refuse to use the shooter's name).

Third, use the laws on the books. Form 4473 is the federal form to buy a rifle, shotgun or pistol. The form depends on the buyer's answering mental health questions and drug questions truthfully. In my opinion, this is ridiculous since a person can lie or may not know they are lying if they are truly insane. Mental health laws prohibit medical and mental health professionals from reporting to authorities all but the most severe cases of unstable clients. Domestic violence laws make a restraining order easy to get and a hearing can, when justified, remove the order. Patients on strong psychiatric medication or under prolonged treatment should have a simple restraining order entered in court, which would prevent them from legally buying a firearm.

Rich Gomez and Gloria Sefton of the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy are shown at the site along Santiago Canyon Road just north of Cook's Corner, where Saddle Crest, a 65-home development, is planned. The Orange County Planning Commission approved a change master planning documents for the canyon areas that will open the way for the development. (Register photo)

VILLA PARK, John Terando, president, Griffin Real Estate Management in California: The rebuttal written by Gloria Sefton of the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy is a wonderful example of the “kettle calling the pot black” [“Reader Rebuttal: environmental laws,” Commentary, Jan. 6]. No group or movement has used the legislative process better than the environmental lobbyists and NIMBY principle activists to rewrite or influence codes, law, processes and approvals for their agenda.

Sefton states the developer “coaxed county planners and lawyers to painstakingly rewrite the Orange County General Plan and the Specific Plan to fit its high-density suburban project.” What do you think the environmentalists and NIMBY proponents did to get the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act and all of its additions and refinements enacted?

To paraphrase her, CEQA is in place to allow citizens to challenge what they believe to be inadequate review (code for “it didn't go their way”). Well the legislative process allows for all “citizens,” which, unfortunately for radical environmentalists, includes developers who may use a political and legal process for their purposes as well.

If you were not able to amend and petition laws and regulations that were written and enacted in times and under circumstances that are different from the current environment, our world would look a lot different: women wouldn't vote, slavery would still be permitted, and people would not be living in Irvine.

President Barack Obama stands with Vice President Joe Biden as he makes a statement in this Dec. 19, 2012 about policies he will pursue following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct. The Obama administration is calling gun owner groups, victims' organizations and representatives from the video-game industry to the White House Biden will meet Wednesday Jan. 9, 2013 with gun violence victims' groups and gun safety organizations (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak).

SEAL BEACH, Don Crane: Like any other combination of steel, wood and plastic, a gun is an inanimate object. It has no mind of its own [“O.C. voices add to debate on gun curbs,” Front Page, Jan. 5]. It cannot launch a projectile on its own or target anyone or anything. To become active it requires someone to load it, aim it and put the required pressure on the firing mechanism. Gun control advocates seem to ignore this fundamental requirement and believe that removing these inanimate objects from the hands of rational, law-abiding citizens will be the panacea for preventing gun violence.

However, this solution doesn't prevent these inanimate objects from falling into the hands of criminals and mentally disturbed persons who use them in pursuit of their objectives. Nor does it provide for enforcement of laws already on the books for the illegal use of a firearm.

A strict and severe punishment for the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime is needed. Too often, the punishment is a slap on the wrist and a “don't do that again” in the hope that it will suffice. Our judicial system all too often considers the appropriate penalty to be “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Constitution. Until the judiciary revises its thinking on this subject, crime will continue to flourish.

In the meantime, gun-control advocates would disarm the law-abiding populace and leave them at the mercy of the lawless.

LA HABRA, Lynton C. Hurdle: According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are 1,038,500 divorces per year in the United States. The article “Love, loss and activism” [News, Dec. 29] suggests another gun control law needs to be enacted that will specifically affect more than 2 million (husbands and wives) Americans who divorce each year.

The divorce process can be a contentious and emotional time for those involved. Disputed divorces can result in a great amount of time and resources spent on inconsequential matters – all of which represent vindictiveness against the divorcing partner. I'm afraid the law being sought to curb emotion-fueled shootings may provide another opportunity for one partner to “get back” at the other and could become the proverbial “straw that breaks the camel's back.” Any kind of gun control for divorcing couples may, in itself, create another cause for an emotion-fueled shooting.

Additionally, divorcing couples should not be deprived of their Second Amendment right to protect themselves from common criminals.

In my opinion it would be far better if Paul Wilson spent his time attempting to enact legislation which would allow more law-abiding citizens to carry firearms to protect themselves from would be mass shooters.

Some of the weapons collected in Wednesday's Los Angeles Gun Buyback event are showcased Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 during a news conference at the LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office says the weapons collected Wednesday included 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns and 75 assault weapons. The buyback is usually held in May but was moved up in response to the Dec. 14 massacre of students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

NEWPORT BEACH, Ron Williams, U.S. Secret Service, retired; CEO Talon Companies, a professional security and risk management firm: I do not advocate or support the sale of assault weapons to citizens other than the military or police, and I agree that they should be banned. But guns are not the problem with violence in America.

If we followed the logic of avid supporters of banning guns, then perhaps we should ban box cutters, which were used on Sept. 11, 2001, to bring down three passenger planes and kill nearly 3,000 people. We should also ban items we can purchase at our local grocery store that can be used to make improvised explosive devices.

The issue of violence in America is one of culture, a lack of training to detect dysfunctional behaviors that indicate a propensity for violence and specific protocols to deal with the mentally ill or persons deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.

We have allowed violent video games and movies to provide “entertainment.” When “at risk” individuals see killing by playing the violent video games and watching violent movies they become desensitized to death. They are unable to distinguish between playing the game or watching a movie and reality. They began to lack empathy. We must address how we are being entertained, and there must be guidelines for acceptable games and movies in order to change our culture.

IRVINE, Phyllis Agran, MD, MPH, American Academy of Pediatrics, Violence Prevention Committee: As a pediatrician, a mother and grandparent, my heart goes out to the families in Newtown, Conn. The most basic need of parents is to protect their children.

As pediatricians, so much of what we do is meant to help parents and caregivers do this. We cannot accept a national culture that tolerates tragedies like Sandy Hook.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has long advocated for changes that will give our country a better chance at protecting our most innocent and vulnerable.

As pediatricians, it is our professional responsibility to ask parents and caregivers about guns in the homes of our patients. Beginning at the 12-month visit, we advise parents to remove guns from the home.

Gun control advocates march in protest near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2012. Congressional Democrats showed signs on Monday of a more aggressive push on gun control in the wake of the Newtown school shooting, which left 20 children and six adults dead. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

SAN CLEMENTE, Jim Corbett: What did the 30 or so mass murderers who have slaughtered Americans have in common? If they were all Muslim, Hispanic, African American, women or something other than white men, the press would be questioning what leads group members to kill, but all the murderers were white men. The press ignores that consistent reality.

What is it about white men that leads so many to kill? I don't know, but I have a suspicion that it has something to do with myths about firearms that lead some men to believe they are “heroes” ready to “save” others, or society itself, from largely nonexistent evils. Ask yourself, if all these murders were committed by some other ethnic group, would the public argue for gun sales to that group be limited?

An armed citizenry leads to more murders, not fewer. The Harvard University School of Public Health found that more, not fewer, people die from gun homicides in areas with higher rates of gun ownership. This was true even when poverty and ethnicity were considered.

Gun lobbies would have us believe that the Second Amendment prohibits gun control, but that's not true. Yes, the Supreme Court struck down D.C.'s handgun ban, but the Court also said that categorical bans on firearm possession in certain public locations are constitutional. All public use or carrying of firearms can be banned without violating the Second Amendment.

ANAHEIM, Jeffery Thomas: Columnist Kevin O'Leary describes the weapons used in many of the recent spree killings as “weapons of war” and as having “magazines that fire dozens of lethal bullets in a fraction of a second.” First, magazines don't fire anything – they simply hold the bullets. The trigger or firing mechanism is what he really means, but he gets it wrong here, too [“Gun culture glorifies war weapons,” Dec. 19].

The weapons are semiautomatic. That means that when the trigger is depressed, one round is fired. This technology has been available for more than 125 years. What O'Leary describes are automatic weapons, meaning depressing the trigger fires multiple rounds (machine guns). These are the weapons the military uses. They are also illegal for U.S. citizens to own without a special permit and have been so for generations.

So, in fact, the rifles you can buy in the local sporting goods store or gun shop might more accurately be describes as “non-military weapons.”

Law enforcement canvass the area following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of New York City, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. An official with knowledge of Friday's shooting said 27 people were dead, including 18 children. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

IRVINE, Roger Hawkes: It seems there are mass shootings, school shootings or workplace shootings weekly somewhere in America, if not daily. The reasons are many and perplexing, but I believe I know why this keeps happening.

When I grew up in the 1960s, and throughout the '70s and the '80s, this phenomenon did not exist. There were crimes and murders and assassinations, but not on the level we see now. It's not guns. There were many guns in the '60s. And it's not violence on TV and in the movies. We had plenty of that then, too. The difference now is what our culture is, and what it revolves around.

Everything revolves around “little people's problems.” Dr. Phil, TMZ, Twitter, anti-bullying campaigns and liberalism rule. As a result, narcissists choose to go out in a sick blaze of glory and get maximum attention.

We now live in a culture where it has become acceptable, and almost encouraged that one be weird. As a result, no one can make fun of you and/or bully you, fire you, break up with you or hurt your feelings in any way. Stigma no longer exists. Nice world liberals have created.

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